Commission OKs South Dale EMS petition

Emergency medical services for the south end of Dale County are more defined after the Dale County Commission approved a funding request from South Dale EMS at the commission meeting Jan.14.

Midland City, Newton and Napier Field comprise South Dale EMS whose petition to be included in the countywide tag tax fund quarterly distribution was unanimously approved.

Dale County Attorney Henry Steagall told the commission that the petition was filed in accordance with a resolution passed by the commission Sept. 24, 2019 to resolve the question of what emergency medical services providers in South Dale County should receive tag tax funds.

The funding is that generated by a $5 county wide tag tax enacted in January 2019 earmarked for emergency medical services in Dale County.

At the Sept. 24, 2019 meeting, the commissioners voted by majority to appoint the Echo EMS to provide EMS services to the towns of Napier Field, Grimes, Pinckard, Newton, Midland City and the unserved areas of south Dale County.

That decision was made because it had been nearly a year since the Dale County voters approved a tax tax in January 2019 for emergency medical services providers and the south end of the county still disagreed who is the EMS provider for their area.

At a commission meeting in July 2019, the commissioners gave a 30-day deadline to the South Dale municipalities to present a viable EMS plan, adding that in the absence of such a plan they would give the tag tax money to another EMS to provide services,

With “no viable plan’ being presented by the Sept. 24, 2019 deadline the commission passed a resolution appointing Echo EMS to be the emergency medical services provider for the South end of the county citing the original legislation that states that, “In the event the county commission determines that proper EMS services are not being adequately provided in an area of the county, the commission may divert a portion of the funds to contract with private EMS services needed in the unserved/underserved area.”

Grimes and Pinckard are still being serviced by Echo EMS but South Dale EMS acted on a provision in the resolution which allowed for municipalities to provide documented evidence of services for at least 90 days before filing a petition for the tag tax funds. The commission later amended the requirement to 60 days.

“South Dale EMS has done just what we have asked them to,” Steagall told the commission Jan. 14. “All the information is there and I would like to add this to the agenda in the voting meeting.

“I will make a recommendation that we approve South Dale EMS to receive their prorated share of the funding starting with the next EMS distribution,” Steagall said. “They are answering calls. We do have E911 data from the calls. They have done just we asked them to and I think that we ought to approve them.”

Steagall also told the commission he had received a written request from Midland City for retroactive reimbursement for emergency service runs that the now defunct Midland City EMS had done in 2019.

He noted that no part of any resolution approved by the commission provided for retroactive reimbursement and recommended tabling that request until further review.

Blankenship said that of the 464 emergency calls made from the rural parts of Dale County in the last quarter, only 66 of those calls had to be redirected. “Of the 464 calls, all of them were responded to on the first call,” he said. “That is a very positive thing.”

The next meeting of the Dale County Commission is Jan. 28 in the Dale County Government Building in Ozark. A work session begins at 10 a.m. and is followed immediately by a voting meeting. Both meetings are open to the public.